Poker is a card game played between two or more players. Its rules and variants vary widely. The game can be a game of pure chance or, as is more often the case, one in which cunning and deception are employed to gain an advantage.

The game is usually a heads-up, or face-to-face, competition and players place bets by placing chips into the pot. Each player is usually required to place a minimum number of chips, called an ante or blind bet, into the pot before cards are dealt. Players can also put additional bets into the pot. These are known as raises.

If a player has an excellent hand, they win the pot. The highest-ranking hand is a Royal Flush, which includes an Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of the same suit. This is followed by a Straight, and then four of a kind, three of a kind, and a pair. A player can also tie a hand with five consecutive cards of the same rank.

When a player is uncertain whether their hand is good or bad, they may “check” to stay in the round and see what happens. They can also “raise” by putting in more chips than the player to their left. However, after the stake has been raised a few times, players tend to fold unless they have a strong hand. The game has been around for a long time, and was probably first popularized in the United States by the crews of riverboats transporting goods up and down the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.